The real reason the White House is attacking Fox News: Containment

posted at 4:45 pm on October 20, 2009 by Allahpundit

This seems so obviously correct that I feel embarrassed for not having figured it out sooner.

The rationale of the White House offensive against Fox News has been a topic of much puzzlement lately. Is this just the White House lashing out? Are they trying to rally the base?

But I think Mike Allen and Josh Gerstein nail the real explanation in their story today: The White House is working to prevent stories born on Fox from crossing over into more widely-viewed media. Most Americans still haven’t heard of Van Jones, for instance; and the strategy is now all about containment…

“We’re doing what we think is important to make sure news is covered as fairly as possible,” a White House official told POLITICO, noting how the recent ACORN scandal story started because Fox covered it “breathlessly for weeks on end.”

“And then you had a couple days of breast-beating from The Washington Post and The New York Times about whether or not they were fast enough on the ACORN story,” the official said. “And it’s like: Wait a second, guys. Let’s make sure that we keep perspective on what are the most important stories, and what’s being driven by a network that has a perspective. Being able to make that point has been important.”…

“They’re not really a news station,” Axelrod told ABC’s “This Week.” “It’s not just their commentators, but a lot of their news programming if you watch, it’s really not news….The bigger thing is that other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way, and we’re not going to treat them that way. We’re going to appear on their shows. We’re going to participate, but understanding that they represent a point of view.”

“It’s not a news organization so much as it has a perspective,” Emanuel said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “More importantly, is to not have the CNNs and the others in the world basically be led in following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization.”

Both Politico and Mediaite note that the expected righteous indignation at being lectured by politicians on what they should consider news is strangely absent from most of the press corps — with the important exception of Jake Tapper. Go figure. Even the reliably liberal Ruth Marcus felt obliged to wonder what the reaction would have been had Dubya declared war on MSNBC and encouraged other news outlets to ignore the nightly spiel on “Countdown.” Olby would have duly clambered up onto the cross as a free-speech martyr — after a 40-minute special comment on freedom of the press and the “chill winds” of totalitarianism, natch — and the rest of the media would have gladly circled the wagons. Does anyone seriously think otherwise?

The irony of this story, though, is that the press was already happy to quarantine “wingnut” stories emanating from Fox, be it Van Jones or ACORN or the White House trying to politicize the NEA. Compare the first boldfaced quote in the blockquote above to this one from Chuck Todd more than a month ago. In fact, here’s what I wrote on September 4, while the Jones thing was roiling, on how Tapper — again — seemed to be the only non-Foxy willing to break the wider media embargo on covering what Fox News was covering.

That’s from Tapper, who to my knowledge remains the one and only reporter from big media pursuing this story. The Times, WaPo, broadcast news — it’s a complete blackout, at least as of early this afternoon. (NBC’s blog mentioned it in passing at the end of this morning’s news recap, in a sneering aside about the “conservative media machine.”) Why would they cede the field to Jake when he’s pulling big traffic from the righty blogosphere for covering this? I don’t think it’s simply to protect The One; they covered Geithner’s and Daschle’s tax problems and they’re much bigger fish. I think it’s that they know Glenn Beck’s been after Jones for weeks and it pains them too much to give him credence by following his lead. It’s analogous to the NYT refusing to review Michelle’s book even though she’s been number one on their own bestseller list for more than a month. Who cares if her thesis about Obama’s culture of corruption is correct and newsworthy and obviously of great public interest? They’re not going to help promote the work of someone whom they dislike. The state of the media, 2009. As for Tapper, his willingness to take up stories circulating in the righty blogosphere that other outlets try to suppress might give him a lot more influence as a reporter going forward. The White House can spin the Jones story as just another Fox News vendetta against the administration if it’s only FNC covering it; if ABC’s on it too, that becomes impossible and the story becomes “legitimate.” From now on, think of Tapper as the swing vote in the press pool, I guess.

Boldface added. That last part is truer now than it was then, before the ACORN story broke big and Beck’s ratings soared even higher. The White House must be panicking at the thought that the “legitimate” media will only ignore these stories for so long before the lure of bigger, Foxier ratings finally proves too much. Ideological solidarity only goes so far; as Axelrod himself acknowledged about FNC, ultimately the news nets are in business to make money. So here he and Emanuel are, leaning on them not only to ignore Fox but to ignore stories that Fox covers, as if the underlying facts are somehow tainted by association (“Let’s make sure that we keep perspective on what are the most important stories”). Creepy.

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coldwarrior at 5:17
Obama tools Cass Sunstein, the Regulation Czar, and Mark Lloyd, the FCC’s Chief Diversification Officer and fan of Hugo Chavez, will issue regulations regardling “localizing” radio stations, to ensure that they answer the needs of the public, as determined by local groups that they will organize. This will be a major strike against right-leaning talk radio. No law needs to be passed.
It is going to happen.

Why shouldn’t the administration expect the MSM to roll over and play dead now? They did it for Obama all through the campaign. And I have to believe that Axelrod and company were able to do this during Obama’s Senate campaign with local news too.
Administrations have done this in the past but not in this manner or to this degree. Obama and company are incredibly stupid in their approach. Sending out admin monkeys to make it a pulic feud is amateur hour. They really couldn’t somehow manage to do this behind the scenes? Or did they try and it didn’t work?

This seems so obviously correct that I feel embarrassed for not having figured it out sooner. AP

Yep, almost makes you wonder whether the Bruise Bros. over at the WH weren’t doing some NYT-style conservative monitoring of the own. Might have even come across this
from the Boss, and wondered where all that monitoring might lead.

For the first time in nearly 30 years, a brand new NASA rocket has rolled out to a seaside launching pad in Florida to prepare for a launch test debut.

and

Senate Approves Plan to Transfer Gitmo Detainees to U.S. for Trial

“The plan to permit terrorist suspects held at the facility to be shipped to U.S. soil to face trial passed the Senate by a 79-19 vote as part of a larger $44.1 billion budget bill for the Homeland Security Department.”

I’m just asking for some help here. These are not “real” news stories, right?. Okay. And Fox has a point of view that’s all they talk about while ignoring actual events (actual events + something unique about them = “news” in my dumbed-down definition), right? Okay, again. I guess.

But, I’m having trouble here figuring out how that applies to what I read and hear via FOX on a daily basis.

Yes, I agree that this sounds logical. In Operational Warfare, it’s called operational fires–targeting something of the enemy’s so as to prepare the battlespace (i.e., we are going to invade Saipan, so we conduct strikes on airfields at Iwo Jima so they can’t assist…or if one prefers the European Theatre, Hitler’s invasion of Norway to secure Swedish iron ore shipments before launching Case Yellow, or the Allies destruction of French rail lines before D-Day…the Norway campaign technically speaking was not operational fires, but a theatre campaign with an objective undertaken to support a follow-on campaign and overall strategic objective–if I have my definitions straight. Maybe not. At any rate…)

I do not claim the administration has a grand plan–merely they are instinctively targeting the element that seems like it is the greatest threat to those plans at the moment. In that sense, Fox News–and yes, in fact, Glenn Beck–is the critical strength for the conservative side at the moment. Limit the damage Fox can do, and there is a lot more the administration can do.

Naturally, this leads to the question “Can the administration stand full and robust coverage of its decisions and judgement under the light of day, or is the only way it can succeed is by slight of hand and discrediting of opponents? Is that the only way people will ever flock to its banners–by not knowing the full story?” So it would seem from these actions…

The man truly of wisdom and inner strength takes full account of his mistakes, and lets all know he makes them–for he has wisdom and strength to spare, and gains stature thereby. The fraud cannot do this, for his veil will be pierced and he will have no other currency with which to barter.

I thus close with a quote from Plato, Book II of The Republic:The unjust man must, similiarly, if he is to be thoroughly unjust, be able to avoid detection in his wrongdoing; for the man who found out must be reckoned to be a poor specimen, and the most accomplished form of injustice is to seem just when you are not. So our perfectly unjust man must be perfect in his wickedness; he must be able to commit the greatest crimes perfectly and at the same time get himself a reputation for the highest probity, while, if he makes a mistake he must be able to retrieve it, and, if any of his wrongdoing comes to light, be ready with a convincing defense, or when force is needed to be prepared to use force, relying on his own courage and energy or making use of of his friends or his wealth.

The Chief Executive is steering to close to this shoal of perceived injustice that would wreck the ship of state, and should alter course. A robust–and divided–press is a blessing for both the Republic, and if he would but consider it, himself. Press should act with courtesy and respect for the dignity of the individual being covered; the Chief Executive should welcome robust debate, as frustrating as it may be, so that all thoughts of him being unjust are laid completely to rest and he may continue with his work. And if, in that process of robust debate, the decision of the public is not to support the Chief Executive, surely there is nothing ill in this. If the people were right, a mistake has been avoided. If the people were wrong, then next time those who were right will have increased stature and ability to accomplish the task at hand, and the people will learn to discern better.

My respect for Obama is plummeting very fast. This is just mind-boggling. Not only is it something a president shouldn’t be doing – at all – but it’s a mind-numbingly dumb strategy that is born to backfire.

Seems like Obama is really struggling with the job of the presidency and is now trying to emulate Nixon on his spiral downwards. Sad.

What is amazing is the thought that the general public and most of the walking dead out there have no idea the war being waged in the new media. Twitter is ablazaned with Generals and artillery and Tapper is in the no fly zone.

OT: for those that think that Glenn Beck is deranged, my 9 yr old came home with a T-Shirt from school today. It has “National Learn & Serve Challenge” and “be a solution” (in puzzle pieces) on the front. He has no idea why they were given out, but every one got one.

Mark my word the day will come that This group will go after the likes of NBC,ABC,CBS,CNN,MSNBC and the rest of the state run media.They want total control of everything from health care to the net.After all the socialist paradise that Obama wants will never be complete unless the Gov. is in charge of all things and gives the worker class just enough to survive and begging for more bread please.

Every day, the Barack Hussein Obama administration is the living embodiment of Opposite Day.

What they oppose, I generally support.

What they support, I generally oppose.

The more they attack FOX, try to squelch FOX, and declare war on the only major media outlet that brings us the news about this White House administration that no one else will, the more I will watch FOX exclusively. The more the White House tries to push and shove MSNBC, CNN, and the rest of the collusionary media outlets down our throats, the more I distrust those outlets for accurate unbiased information. That goes for print and interwebs MSM too. I absolutely refuse to drink the kool-aid.

Barack Hussein Obama, his administration, and the rest of the Democrat government are fearful of FOX news. MSNBC. CNN, CNBC, ad nauseum, are fearful of Barack Hussein Obama.

FOX must be striking nerves at every turn of events and that means they’re doing something right. Barack Hussein Obama and our Democrat government has all the rest of the media outlets cowering in the corner like children fearful of the outcome if they should inflame the ire of an abusive parent.

OT: for those that think that Glenn Beck is deranged, my 9 yr old came home with a T-Shirt from school today. It has “National Learn & Serve Challenge” and “be a solution” (in puzzle pieces) on the front. He has no idea why they were given out, but every one got one.

Yes, I do believe “they” are trying to indoctrinate my children.

cibolo on October 20, 2009 at 5:57 PM

They have no need for your children; they have all of the other children.

Dissent is always unpopular to those whose ambitions it might thwart, and our Barry is an ambitious boy.

The moral and intellectual support for Bama’s agenda is so thin it would be disastrous if anyone additional to Fox started doing the real homework and critical thinking Fox, much of the blogosphere and talk radio is doing. He cannot survive scrutiny, or his college transcripts would be out there. His “plans” are similarly unlikely to be popular.

The guy might really end up on the end of his own pitchforks, figuratively, long before he is turned out in 2012. He might survive the term without impeachment, but “pantywaist” won’t begin to describe his lack of impact on any discussion, much less decision, about the direction of the country.

Barry is a good marxist and is doing what smarter and meaner people are telling him to. Those are his only utilities to anyone. If rendered a public eunuch by all the media, who knows what might happen when the bigger and meaner ambitions are angered?

Axelrod implicitly threatened the other networks, “…The bigger thing is that other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way, and we’re not going to treat them that way.”
If anyone thinks this WH won’t take shots at the others if they don’t play well, you’re a naive waif. This is about state control of the media and they are too enamored of the One to realize it. What fools and tools.

Confirmed: The Obama communist democrats are scared and falling apart. Their plans and policies can’t stand the light of day so they must try anything to stop the truth from reaching mainstream America.

darwin on October 20, 2009 at 4:52 PM

Correct, but to our sheer joy, they are failing miserably. All they do is drive FNC’s viewership through the roof.

The Obama administration works exactly as Anita Dunn described — they feed news storys they contain and control to the media and make sure that questions cannot be asked. There is no “why” with the news they control. That’s why they don’t like Fox, the network is constantly asking “why” to everything this administration does and is not playing along like the “good puppy” news org’s the admin likes.

It’s not so much “containment” but “control”… they don’t like “rogue” players, they only want to control their message… they don’t want the reality of what they’re doing to reach the American people…

Ap, I’m sorry but I have to disagree. Obama’s targeting of Fox news fits perfectly with the Alinski-ite game plan that they turn to at every turn.

“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it.”

Lacking a Republican to appoint as the central boogeyman for the “Sky-is Falling” followers of the “never let a crisis go to waste” administration they have chosen to apply their rules to the one source that is being effective in questioning their conduct.

I can’t claim credit for the idea. Saw it on a different blog (don’t ask, I don’t remember) and it simply fit the puzzle.

They needed to set an example of their wrath and indirectly warn their propaganda media stooges (ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and Public Radio) that dissent and disagreement will not be tolerated. Fox couldn’t care less about their disgruntlement but the others will quickly fall into lock step, bow and pay homage to their emperor. The relationship between the Obama regime and the mainstream media is much like the relationship between the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact nations before the fall of the Soviet Union . . . utter slavery.

This is an attempt to pre-condition the average brain-dead Dem voter, so that when they hear screams of outrage from Fox, they will only be phoney propaganda, unlike the screams of outrage from the White House, which are a public service to help them know what to think.

Another way to look at it is that the WH is saying to the MSM that if you cover for us, we’ll do our damnedest to make sure your competitor can’t make you look like a tame stooge, you tame stooges.

This is all in the finest “cooperate and graduate” tradition of the Demobamacorn School of Ethics.

Yea, ACORN is a joke but why is it such a big problem? I mean once you’ve heard about it, you’ve heard about it. I think the war in Afghanistan is much more crucial, along with the healthcare debate and national deficit. ACORN just doesn’t register for me.

bayam on October 20, 2009 at 4:56 PM

Did you miss the world wide financial melt down that was triggered by bad home loans?

Did you miss the tax exempt non-profit that was giving advice on how to count child sex slaves as dependents?.

Did you miss that the leader of the free world had only one thing on his resume before the Illinois Senate? And that one thing was ACORN!

It should be the biggest story ever, yet there it sits with congress sneaking back funding to corruption… so they can stuff the ballot boxes and stay in power…

I wonder if Fox ratings were up today. Especially Beck, I got the feeling he was trying to bring newbies up to speed… I hope there is something really good under that table cloth on the chalkboard because sometimes his build up is better than his message.

I wonder if the Whitehouse is squirming… I wonder if that is the point of the “unveiling” to make the whitehouse crazy.

Man I’d hate to be married to someone who could push buttons that well!

If that\’s the strategy, then it\’s a gamble sure to backfire. It might work in the Obama administration\’s favor for a news item or two, but as the stories begin to pile up, the word will eventually get out. Embarrassment as well as further declines in ratings and relevance will eventually lead to resentment. Woe to the Obama administration when that occurs. If they don\’t like Fox now, I wonder how they\’ll feel when everyone is piling on. Livelihoods will be at stake and that will outweigh loyalty.

Even though the Obama-fellating media holds the same ideological bent, they have got to be chafing at the insistence of Obama’s henchmen that they not cover stories just because Fox covers them. How far will their loyalty go? Has it reached a breaking point for anyone besides Tapper? This could be fun.

“Containment” by trying to demonize Fox News, the one cable news network really willing to ask the Obama Administration tough questions and present negative (but true) stories about them, is clearly what Obama’s strategy has become.

Obama probably knows that Fox News isn’t going away any time soon. Fox News has much higher ratings than CNN and MSNBC combined, which has brought them lots of money to hire many talented reporters ready and willing to dig for hard-hitting news stories, without fear that those critical of Democrats will be squelched by editors. Fox News has become a magnet, not only for conservative viewers, but also right-leaning journalists eager for free speech, whose careers have been stifled at other TV networks.

If Fox News attracts most conservative talent, this could play both ways–as other networks are depleted of conservatives, their message becomes even more leftist and unbalanced. Will the ignorant masses who slavishly watch the “alphabet” network news continue to believe the increasingly socialist content, or will they turn on Fox News to seek the conservative reporters they trusted?

If the Obama Administration tries to demonize Fox News as a “right-wing smear machine”, will those in the center (who decide elections) believe Obama, or will they turn on Fox News to see what all the fuss is about, and then realize, “the Fox News people make sense, amybe I should watch them more often”?

This containment thing really makes no sense. The other media outlets were already not covering the stories Fox was doing. In other words they were already trying to contain them…wasn’t working then, won’t work now. Fox viewership is too high and rising, MSM viewership too low and dropping. I have to go with “Just a bunch of whiners” in the whitehouse.

What Obama’s people are trying to do has such a pre-January 22, 1998 mindset on it, it’s as pitiful as it is funny.

1/22/98 was the day when the Drudge Report published details of Michael Isikoff’s story on Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. The same story that Isikoff’s editors at Newsweek had killed two days earlier. People found out about the story, because it was on alternate sites like Drudge and was then picked up by other alternative media sites, like the then 18-month-old Fox News Channel.

Even if the other media outlets are good little boys and girls and do exactly what Mr. Axelrod and Mr. Emanuel tell them to do, it’s too late. Even if CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC and the big media publications ignore the story, and even if Jake Tapper’s stories get confined to ABC’s World News Now at 3 in the morning, there’s just too many alternative ways for people who actually care enough to vote to get their information today. The faster those other news organizations figure that out, the better chance they have to salvage what’s left of both their public images and their pride.

Maybe the rationale upon which your respect was built upon was wrong to begin with. He was hoisted and foisted upon us on a wing and a prayer without proper due diligence given to his history, authorship, experience, nor values (or lack thereof). A mere dose of KoolAid conferred “respect” to him by many, and it appears that those partakers are now having a KoolAid hangover, so to speak.

The faster those other news organizations figure that out, the better chance they have to salvage what’s left of both their public images and their pride.

jon1979 on October 21, 2009 at 10:52 AM

Absolutely right. Van Jones didn’t get fired because Fox News latched on to the story, he got fired because the blogosphere was all over it. The MSM’s only hope for survival is to drop the lapdog BS and start printing stories people want to read. Your analogy to Drudge picking up the Lewinsky story is very good.

Just to be picky, though, Isikoff insists to this day that Newsweek sat on the story – not spiked it. Meaning that they wanted to run it but were not quite confident about the sourcing, and wanted to hold it over the weekend to be sure. He may be lying or wrong, but that’s what he says.

At any rate they were too slow and that slowness launched Drudge into the stratosphere. Think they regret it now?

So I hear today that he may make a decision on Afgan….. by November 7. I wonder how many servicemen and women will be killed due to this negligence. Not a commmander in chief that I would want to serve under.

Apparently Fox News is to become the National Enquirer of the cable news set regardless of how much better MSNBC fits that role.

NTropy on October 21, 2009 at 12:19 AM

How ironic that the “National Retarder” broke the story of John Edwards love child a year ago, and the media covered up for him, denied everything and today? The National Enquirer is one of the few media outlets to carry “REAL” news stories?

Never fear, this White Red House will demand what THEY deem as true news and what THEY will ALLOW the media to write. Noooo, that is NOT media bias, just journalistic integrity for this Red House.

“It’s not a news organization so much as it has a perspective,” Emanuel said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “More importantly, is to not have the CNNs and the others in the world basically be led in following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization.”

From that paragraph alone, you can smell the fear emanating from Emanuel. They’re possibly losing some support from their minions, and want to correct, and control that before it’s to late. If the msm’s, willingly follow this path, it will be to their own detriment.

The reason Obama and his band of loons are lashing out against Fox News is that they are two-bit Chicago thug politicians, nothing more, nothing less. If they lose control of the brainwashed lemmings, the power that they used to take the White House will dissipate and they will become the eunuchs that they are destined to be.

With Obama, everything is Alinsky style. He can’t control himself. He doesn’t even know he’s doing it. Basically, if someone can ask questions and can reach the public, this must be eliminated at all costs. Fox News fits that criteria and must be eliminated. The other networks aren’t asking questions, so they’re “news”.

Barry is a good marxist and is doing what smarter and meaner people are telling him to. Those are his only utilities to anyone. If rendered a public eunuch by all the media, who knows what might happen when the bigger and meaner ambitions are angered?